Philosophizing about life and literature

Which in my world basically mean the same thing...
Each holiday I make a huge list of books I plan to read, which I never end up actually doing because I find other books to read in stead. Well, I'm not giving up.
This time I feel like reading a few classics, and some I think should end up being classic (mind you, I'm saying this even before I've read them...):
- Jack Kerouac's On the Road, I actually have two different versions of this book: the original manuscript and the one that ended up being published - I don't know which one I'll read.
- Allen Ginsberg, I love his poems and I've gotten a hold of his whole production, I might not read it all, but I'll definitely read his collection Howl and other poems.
- Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar.
- Joseph Heller's Catch-22.These are all books I was supposed to read last fall, but never got through them (I took a class in 1950s American Literature).
- James Joyce's Ulysses - the original 1922 text, apparently without interference - what ever that means.
- Miguel de Cervantes Saaveda's Don Quijote - I've read it for a class earlier, but never finished it.
- Ernest Hemingway: For Whom the Bell Tolls and To Have and Have not - I'm not sure I'll read them both, we'll see.
- Amalie Skram: Constance Ring - One Norwegian made the list!
- John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath - I have started reading this book so many time, it's about time I get past chapter 4
- Alexandre Dumas: The Count of Monte Cristo - saw the movie the other day, it made me want to read the book.

And the non-classics:
- Haruki Murakami: Norwegian Wood and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle - I love Murakami, he is one of my favourite authors.
- Paul Auster: The Book of Illusions - I'm reading this one because I promised a friend I would a few years ago, but never did.

But before I read any of these books I'm going to read Chris Cleave's Little Bee - which I will be writing a review of for a journal (? På godt norsk: tidsskrift). Yesterday I was at a book meeting where Chris Cleave read from the book, it was so much fun. He is really good at presenting himself and his book.
A friend of mine and I got up really early to go to the book meeting at Aschehoug, and all I could think of when I was there was how much I wanted to work there. <- and that's the life part of this blog